I am concerned about preparedness planning for those with pre-exisitng health conditions. To illustrate take two extremes: the patient requiring dialysis in hospital several times a week and the pregnant Mum facing childbirth in a similar timescale to the pandemic peak (gulp). In between are all the conditions, including accidents and wounds, that one would normally go along to the doctor or hospital for.

During a pandemic no-one is going to want to go to the hospital if they can avoid it for fear of catching the virus and passing it on to their family on their return home. (plus are hospitals even going to offer the usual range of services?) In our planning we need to think about this because it could happen to you! From getting in key supplies for childbirth to making a dying person's last days as cofortable as possible if we haven't planned these could be the most harrowing memories of the pandemic long after it is over...

If this topic is approved for a forum let's brainstorm the unthinkable here!

First let's start at the beginning with conception, pregnancy and babies!

I'm assuming that no one would choose to start a baby actually during a pandemic. Indeed with Swine flu pregnant women were especially vulnerable. however sex is the one recreation that doesn't need light or even warmth and boy does it bring people together emotionally. Pity the poor couple faced with eeking out a harsh year or two who haven't made provision for effective contraception! Anxiety tha could have been eradicated if supplies or better still a Mirena had been sorted (these last 5 years are much safer than an IUD and for many stop menstruation altogether thus solving another problem!

However no one can plan their lives around a probablility so some women will be pregnant when it starts. If it is planned and known about then asap get in everything you might need. It is readily available now and if not needed much will be saleable on ebay or similar in a mere nine months. You will not want to go out and risk catching the virus though so effective quaranteen will be a consideration. The WHO has a group working on Natural Ventilation for minimising transmission where ill folk are housed near well folk see Natvent Project and a pdf of their guidelines at http://www.who.int/csr/bioriskreduction/natvent/en/index.html

When baby is born make sure that s'he receives Mum's colostrum or 'first milk' as this gives tailor made protection. Ideally continue to feed yourself but have stores of artificial babymilk (which is sealed) in case so baby is catered for no matter what happens. Of course boiling to sterilise equipment and water will be hard work and require fuel and organisation as stomach upsets are dangerous in babies.

Just issued a diktat to teenage offspring that we will all be going as a family to see the film contagion which is released here on 21 Oct in half term week...

Considering the other end of the scale now - the elderly.

Experience of past events indicates that a) the elderly have experience and perspective and knowledge to contribute but set against this they are more likely to experience depression, demotivation and the old chestnut ' I have lived my life and don't want to be a burden'. Of course anyone might feel like this so it is not confined to the elderly!

Specifically the elderly tend to have pre-exisitng health problems and be on long term medication. If possible obtain a long prescription for these - I have yet to find it in a government plan but this ought to be done for at least 6 months with telpehone advice lines operated by staff from their own homes if possible to support them. Many will feel vulnerable when their medication runs out - and for those managing heart failure for example it may well be fatal. Plan for what to expect and palliative care especially to mitigate the frightening symptom of breathlessness. Oxygen masks are the best reassurance and it will be obvious when they need it...

On the psychology it will be important to give the right inclusive messages from the start, overdo the respect and make sure that some of their ideas are adopted and that they have a role - jobs to do. Often the young people will be best able to support their grandparents and they indeed will be a big motivator for the adults as well. Guard against unkind outbursts no matter what the stresses as these could make things very difficult later. what is said cannot be unsaid and an interdependent community is based on trust and respect.

The problem of drug users and trust is also on the list...

Off to muck out the stables now! Hope to hear form others soon (these stars are nice but a bit lonely!)

Back again. where were we? Oh yes drug users. If one is unlucky enough to have any in the family this will require planning! Interestingly during the Great Plague in London in the 17th century there was a cohort of people who took the view 'To hell with it' and got drunk all the time. There may well be such but of course without restocking this will be a finite phase and then the realities of going 'cold turkey' will set in. Research this thoroughly and agree how your group will tackle it because it will be tough and your group will have a big challenge over a potentially divisive issue. I put Trust down because the risk of individuals absconding with supplies or betraying the group to roving gangs who they think may have drugs is very real.

Similarly what will your policy be when strangers arrive needing help? Tricky one this and likely to be relevsant to those in more rural situations as people flee urban areas. In the Great Pague in Britain this caused a lot of violence on both sides. so that puts self-defence on the list now...

In the long chaotic aftermath of a major pandemic the rule of law will not be enforceable and there will be a lot of people angry at being let down by government. Hopefully there will be a spirit of people helping each other at a local community level but realistically there will be vicious elements. Survivors will rediscover the benefits of man's best friend - the dog! The dog is conveniently an omnivore like us (the cat is a carnivore) but his alertness and detection - hearing and smell - give us security. Some people theorise that it was only when the dog enabled mankind to sleep for long periods that our brains could develop as they did. In the aftermath of the Pandemic a dog will give warning and having a secret stash of stores (or stashes) would be a good idea. The scout motto - be prepared - will be the watchword.

What of the cat I hear you ask? Well it should be obvious what they bring to the partnership. The rat population will explode! They are a formidable foe and man's oldest enemy. Cats - real tough ones - keep them at bay and enable us to sleep at night...

The most vulnerable in a pandemic will be those who have health conditions requiring regular treatments - like dialysis - and ongoing medication.

If everyone in this position asks to see their hospital or GPs emergency plan to check how their needs would be catered for then many lives would be saved and terrible frightening situations averted! e.g 6 months of prescription drugs as soon as a pandemic is recognised. Dialysis etc needs to be available quite separately from hospitals dealing with virus victims. Guidance on home care and tapering drugs when they run out, dosage levels etc should be readily available. If patients discuss planning with their doctors now then at least this will be on the agenda and doctors will seek national guidance. A stitch in time...

A man has died in Guandong Province of H5N1 pneumonia who apparently had no contact with poultry.

I do hope that the Olympic plans include precautions if a pandemic is in progress - quarantine for athletes, TV only coverage. It could all go ahead but if there are no contingency plans it could amplify a disaster.

i would advise anyone who uses a iud to have it removed if you see a pandemic coming, i would advise discontinuation of any means of bc that involves inplantation of any foriegn body, it is hard if not impossible to remove, can become infected and deadly (iud) people do get pregnant with them, and have a much higher chance of miscarriage or birth complications. hormones of all kinds need to be monitored regularily, they can cause stroke, dangerous life threatening blood clots, even cancers in some folks prone to female cancers. The long acting shot may be a option but the shot tricks the body into thinking it is pregnant by producing the pregnancy hormones so the body does not ovulate, forsome reason pregnant women are at a higher risk of dying with certain flues, i would not want to risk my life bc i took a shot that makes my body react as if it is pregnant for months. To each his or her own, these are things to think about.

Women have been having babies on their own under dire circumstances since the begining of time, of course mortality rates were sky high then also. if you or someone in your group is of child bearing age you need to get a hard copy off the net on how to deliver babies, how to turn them if need be in the womb, even a how to do a c section in a emergency. The mother will be at great risk of dying but if a infant dies in utero the odds of survival drop pretty low also. All supplies needed can be purchased on line. if you can get a team member with any kind of medical backround do it. make that person feel comfortable that they are the best you have, nothing will be held against them for trying to help, so they feel as comfortable as they possibly can in doing things they would never otherwise do.

most miscarriages take care of themselves, pray that is the case, be better prepared by googling what drugs or herbs might cause miscarriage, i know castor oil is one, any strong laxative causes contractions, remember you are reading this article to help you help them, but you sometimes have to search what you are seeking by entering the search with other words to get the needed info.

Be aware of worst case side effects of some modern medications like the abortion pill, not the morning after the actual one that causes a abortion, what the medical folks and pharma does not tell you becomes a life saving or losing venture in survival situations. The abortiion pill is used with or at least sometimes used with the vaginal insertion meds used to induce labor. opening the cervex, the problem is anytime the cervix is opened the chance for infection goes up, also the procedure typically takes three days, with the body expelling pieces bit by bit, this is not a normal miscarriage where the body of the mother is rejecting a dead embryo or a disformed one, this is a healthy pregnancy the body may try to maintain. This method needs careful and close medical supervision without it, the woman can die due to infection because the full content of the unterus is not expelled, for the same reason it could cause the woman to bleed out. This would not be a option in our survival group.

if there is no power people on dialysis will die, it is sad but it is that simple. very premature babies that need artifical resporation will die. Some preemies can be saved by using a homemade incubator, which is a small box within a larger box with just enough space to put jars of boiling water with tight lids on around the smaller box but sitting in the larger one, keep something on the infants head even a old pair of panty hose that will fit tight without covering nose and mouth, with time one could attach heavier fabric to make the cap warmeer be careful to not ruin the nylon so it does not fit snuggly. people will need to be boiling and refilling bottles as soon as they stop producing heat, best to stager how they are put in, so that there is no time when the box does not have something warm in it.

if we have a doc here who can suggest something better then the box post, it can not be anything too thick it has to allow the heat to get in and not block it.

i actually knew a guy whose parents lined a roaster pan with blankets and put him in a warm oven, he made it and went on to become a media mogul, but the idea makes me ill.

if you have a scrip get it filled like clock work even if you dont need it now, you will

have your dr. give you a unlimited amount of refills they will, tell them you need to be able to get a new one if you loose yours, everyone with asthma should have several, use rx drug discount cards to pay what ins. does not, triple a gives med. discounts, aarp, drug companies google and get a good card

get a hand held nebulizer that runs on batteries, get rechargeable batteries, have a solar recharger

get otc asthma meds they can be used for asthma but also other things basically eppy

First, many doctors will let you have prescriptions for 90 to 180 days. Now as someone who has a major disability, it is important to prep and you might need a generator or solar/wind power to keep yourself alive. I have propane tanks and solar panels. We are looking at what we can do to prep more as the time gets closer. The key to survival is going to be training , preps and ungodly amounts of ammo and guns. I think we are in for a real firefight. If you have a disability you must think about the various food storage options and maybe moving to another location. We have family that we can move in with and we have housing in place.

please remember to get a eppy pen. i have heard many people say Dr.s will not deny writting a script for one. We plan to get one for every family member. Bee Alergies are deadly in my family. you should have as many eppy pins as you can get, we do not all intend to be stung by bees, but if you eat wild foods or use a new med and have a bad reaction your pen is there to save you or a family member.

Tiger often mail order meds are typically three months supply for the cost of two and a half sometimes two. The health ins. saves a lot of money so they pass the savings on to try to get the patient to go with the mail in.

i know i read on a survival site that vitamins are important as foods run short supplements are a good way to get what is missing in the diet. you do not have to take them everyday, the article i read said once a week, would be enough to not allow your system to be deleted yet save on stock and money in purchasing.

We will look at all our maintanence drugs and try to go to min. amounts to spread the amount out that we have if we can.

i would recomend with life saving items, food, meds, money to have them stored in more then one area, if you get robbed you loose some but not all.

Think long and hard about a generator, a solar one is silent, but otherwise they make so much noise they lead the thieves right to you.

another way to keep the thieves at bay, go to a gov. site and down load the official qaurentine sign put that on your door and many will walk on by.

I have a major disability and I also take care of another person with a major disability. So I do take vitamins and mineral pills to add on to what I am taking. Mail order drugs and Canadian Mail orders are a way to cut the cost of drugs. I have what is called a 12 month card that my doctor has electronically signed for my meds. I can get my meds in 180 day supplies. My GF can also get the same kind of deal.

THe most interesting deal is that my health care provider is planning on year supplies for those who use generics.

I have renal cell cancer that has spread to my lungs and spine along with caridomotphy, heart failure,. how would I get chemo? I'll ask dr about that when I go in Tuesday. i'll also ask for more heart meds. what else do think I might need? thanks for all the advice.

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